Autumn 2018 Syllabus for STA302/1001

(DRAFT 2 – page 5 edited on 7 Sept)

Methods of Data Analysis I

Instructor: Professor Mark Ebden

Email: mark (dot) ebden (at) utoronto (dot) ca
Instructor’s office hours: In EP 102 by appointment only, from 6-7 pm on Mondays (click
here to book) and 2-3 pm on Thursdays (click here to book).
Background: My experience has mainly been in the analysis of scientific data using
probabilistic approaches. This is my second time teaching STA302.

Teaching Assistants’ office hours: Described in the course schedule.

Course webpage: Accessible through Quercus at q.utoronto.ca

Classroom sessions:
 Section 1: Twenty-three sessions (excluding midterm) from Thursday 6 Sept to
Tuesday 4 Dec; in room OI G162, 10-11 am (Thurs) & 10 am – 12 pm (Tuesdays)
 Section 2: Eleven sessions (excluding midterm) from Thursday 6 September to
Thursday 29 November; in room ES 1050, 5-8 pm

Prerequisites
 STA238H1/STA248H1/STA255H1/STA261H1/ECO227Y1
 CSC108H1/CSC120H1/CSC121H1/CSC148H1
 MAT221H1(70%)/MAT223H1/MAT240H1

You will need to recall basic matrix operations which you learned in the linear algebra
course. An example of a review of matrix algebra is available in the first ten pages here.

Page 1 of 6
Course Content
This course covers the theory and application of linear regression analysis. In particular
this course will cover: initial examination of data, correlation, simple- and multiple
regression models using least squares, geometry of least squares, inference for
regression parameters for normally distributed errors, confidence and prediction
intervals, model diagnostics and remedial measures when the model assumptions are
violated, interactions & dummy variables, ANOVA, model selection, and ridge regression.

The learning objectives of this course are:

 To gain a solid understanding of linear regression analysis
 To learn practical skills for developing linear regression models for inference and
prediction, and to interpret the results

Textbook
A Modern Approach to Regression with R by Simon Sheather (2009)
- ISBN: 978-0387096070
- Most of chapters 2-7
- The textbook website has datasets and other resources

Additional reference material (optional)

Applied Linear Regression Models, 4th edition, by Michael Kutner, Christopher
Nachtsheim, and John Neter (2004)
- ISBN: 978-0073014661
- Much of Chapters 1-8, and some content from chapters 9-11, overlaps with our course

Applied linear regression, 4th edition, by Sanford Weisberg (2014)

- ISBN: 978-1118386088

Evaluation
Undergraduate- and graduate students will be evaluated according to the following
marking scheme.

Assessment Weight Notes

Quizzes 10% Occurring during class time
Assignments 10% Not to be discussed in office hours
Term test 35% Occurring during class time
Final exam 45% Expected 8-21 December

Page 2 of 6
Graduate students will be evaluated at the graduate level according to the University
Assessment and Grading Practices Policy.

You are not evaluated on attendance or similar forms of participation. But, generally the
more you put into a course the more you’ll get out of it.

Assessments
You must bring your student identification to the quizzes, term test, and final exam.
These are closed book and closed notes. The location of the midterm will be announced
later. The midterm papers may differ between the two course sections but the final
exams are identical. Practice problems will be posted on Portal to help you prepare for
the midterm and exam and are not to be handed in. You need to know basic R syntax for
the midterm and exam, and you must also know how to interpret output from R.

Marking concerns
Any requests to have your quiz/test/assignment mark re-evaluated must be made in
writing within one week of the date the work was returned. The request must contain a
justification for consideration. Send your request to sta302sec1@gmail.com or
sta302sec2@gmail.com, depending on your section.

Submitting your assignments

 Assignments are submitted electronically on Quercus, never via email messages.
 If you leave your submission to the last minute and an overburdened Quercus
records a late timestamp while processing multiple requests, this is your
responsibility. If you’re not feeling lucky, submit at least 30-60 minutes early.
 Assignments submitted late by less than 24 hours will be penalized 10%.
 Those submitted late by less than 48 hours will be penalized 20% total.
 Those submitted more than 48 hours late will receive a grade of zero except in
the case of medical reasons documented properly (see below section). The
weight for the assignment will be transferred to the weight for the final exam.

What if I miss a quiz or test?

 If the quiz/test is missed for a valid medical reason, you can submit the proper
documentation (see below section), and the final exam will be worth more.
• Other reasons for missing a quiz/test will require prior approval by your
instructor. If prior approval is not received for non-medical reasons then you will
receive a grade of zero for that quiz/test.

Page 3 of 6
Submitting medical documentation:

 Submit the University of Toronto Verification of Student Illness or Injury form to

your instructor within one week of the quiz/test/assignment deadline. (Come to
any lecture or office hours.)
• The form will only be accepted as valid if the original paper form is submitted,
filled out according to the instructions on the form.
• The form must indicate that the degree of incapacitation on academic
functioning is moderate, serious, or severe in order to be considered a valid
medical reason for missing the term test. If the form indicates that the degree of
incapacitation on academic functioning is negligible or mild then this will not be
considered a valid medical reason.

Computing and Calculators

For the quizzes, test and exam, you will need a basic scientific hand-calculator, with
statistical functions, logarithmic functions etc. Calculators on phones or other devices
equipped to communicate with the outside world (for example, through the internet or
cellular or satellite phone networks) will not be permitted during the term test and the
final exam. Programmable calculators are not allowed on the quizzes, midterm or exam.

We will make extensive use of the R language (and RStudio) to analyse data. The main
advantages of R are that it is freeware and that there is a lot of help available online.
R is freely available for download at cran.r-project.org for Windows, Mac, and Linux
operating systems. RStudio is a good integrated development environment to R. It is
freely available at www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio You may also like to sign up for a
CQUEST account. To get an account and find out more information about using CQUEST
go to www.cquest.utoronto.ca

If you need help installing R and RStudio, and learning the basic syntax of R, a helpful
document is here. Another good online R reference is here, and there is a downloadable
book called Introduction to R by William Venables and David Smith. The alternative
reference textbooks above, and websites such as datacamp.com, are also good to help
you pick up R.

I’ll give you a quick introduction to R and provide you with R source code for the
examples in lecture. Note that there are many graphics options available to produce
plots, but we’ll focus on the basics, sufficient for the assignments. You may like to use
Rmarkdown to type up your work.

Page 4 of 6
Online Discussion Board
You will have the option to use Piazza for class discussion. If you decide not to use Piazza
it will not disadvantage you in any way, and will not affect official University outcomes
(e.g., grades and learning opportunities). If you choose not to opt-into Piazza then you
can ask questions or discuss course material with the instructor or TAs during office
hours.

Please read Piazza’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, taking time to understand and be
comfortable with them. They provide for substantial sharing and disclosure of your
personal information held by Piazza, which affects your privacy. If you decide to
participate in Piazza, only provide content that you are comfortable sharing under the
terms of the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

The Piazza system is highly catered to getting you help quickly and efficiently from
classmates, the TA, and the lecturers. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching
staff, we encourage you to post your questions on Piazza. To sign up for the discussion
forum, click on the link: piazza.com/utoronto.ca/fall2018/sta3021001

TAs are assigned to answer questions you have on Piazza. If you post your questions
there and don't get a response in three days, please inform me as soon as possible.

Additional help
Practice problems from the textbook for your home preparation will be posted on the
web-site. They are not to be handed in.

Need extra help with the coursework? Here are some options:
 For continued class discussion and questions outside of class, try posting on the
discussion forums. The instructor and TAs will be monitoring the
 You may choose to join (or create) an STA302 study group
 You can visit the instructor or teaching assistants during their office hours
 E-mail should only be used for emergencies or personal matters

Questions concerning the assignments won’t generally be addressed in office hours.

Page 5 of 6
How to communicate with your instructor
Questions about course material such as:
 How do I do this question in the textbook?
 What is standard deviation?
 When is the midterm?
can be posted on the Piazza discussion forum. If you are shy, questions can be posted
anonymously (so that the author is anonymous to other students but not to the
instructors).

For private communication, such as “I missed the test because I was ill,” e-mail me. Use
your utoronto.ca e-mail account and include your full name and student number.

You may post entirely anonymous feedback here. Nobody will know who you are. In past
courses this has helped sort out small problems and big ones.

Academic integrity
You are responsible for knowing the content of the University of Toronto's Code of
Behaviour on Academic Matters at
www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/policies/behaveac.htm. If you have any questions
about what is or is not permitted in this course, please do not hesitate to contact your
instructor.

Accessibility needs
The University of Toronto is committed to accessibility. If you require accommodations
for a disability, or have any accessibility concerns about the course, the classroom, or
course materials, please contact Accessibility Services as soon as possible:
accessibility.services@utoronto.ca or http://accessibility.utoronto.ca.

Your responsibilities
The classroom sessions for this class are designed to actively engage you in the course
material. We hope you'll find them interesting, challenging, fun, and an excellent
opportunity to truly learn the material.

Page 6 of 6